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Friday, April 17, 2015

Vatican City, 17 April 2015 (VIS) –
Today at midday Pope Francis received in audience, in the Sala
Clementina, 225 members, administrators and collaborators of the
“Papal Foundation” during their annual visit to Rome. The “Papal
Foundation” is a Catholic association established in 1990 in
Philadelphia, U.S.A. by the late Cardinal John Krol, which provides
funding for the needs of the Church throughout the world.

In his address to the institution, the
Pope emphasised the wide variety of projects supported by the
Foundation, which offer “witness to the ceaseless efforts of the
Church to promote the integral development of the human family,
conscious as she is of the immense and ongoing needs of so many of
our brothers and sisters”. The Papal Foundation “devotes a
sizeable percentage of its resources to the education and formation
of young priests, religious and lay men and women, hastening the day
when their local Churches may be self-supportive, and, indeed,pass on
the fruits of such generosity to others”.

Pope Francis thanked those present for
the hard work and sacrifice that this entails, and to assured them of
his heartfelt prayers for them, their loved ones, and all those whom
they support.

“As the Church prepares for the
coming Jubilee of Mercy, I ask our Lord Jesus Christ, 'the face of
the Father’s mercy', to refresh and renew each one of you through
his mercy, the greatest of his many gifts”, he concluded. “May
each of you experience the healing and freedom that come from the
encounter of forgiveness and gratuitous love offered in the
sacraments of Reconciliation and the Eucharist”.

Vatican City, 17 April 2015 (VIS) –
The director of the Holy See Press Office, Fr. Federico Lombardi,
S.J., in response to questions from journalists regarding the
possibility of Pope Francis visiting Cuba, has affirmed that “the
Holy Father has taken into consideration the idea of making a stop in
Cuba on the occasion of his upcoming trip to the United States.
However, contacts with the Cuban authorities are still in too early a
phase for it to be possible to regard this stop as a firm decision
and an operative plan”.

- Rev. Fr. Juan de Dios Pena Rojas as
bishop of El Vigia-San Carlos del Zulia (area 8,233, population
432,000, Catholics 427,000, priests 32, religious 10), Venezuela. The
bishop-elect was born in Acequias, Venezuela in 1967 and was ordained
a priest in 1992. He holds a bachelor's degree in theology from the
Pontifical Xavierian University of Bogota, Colombia, a licentiate in
theology from the Santa Rosa de Lima University Institute, Caracas,
Venezuela, and a licentiate in history of the Church from the
Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome. He has served in a number of
pastoral and academic roles in the archdiocese of Merida, including
formator in the major seminary, assessor for youth pastoral ministry,
administrative director of the archiepiscopal curia, professor and
president of the Scholastic Institute of the major seminary, parish
priest, member and secretary of the presbyteral council, and chaplain
of the Dominican Sisters of Santa Rosa de Lima. He is currently
member of the college of consultors and of the Metropolitan Chapter,
and rector of the “San Buenaventura” major seminary of Merida.

- Msgr. Francesco Viscome, Italy,
substitute defender of the bond, as promoter of justice at the
Tribunal of the Roman Rota.

- Rev. Fr. Francesco Ibba, Italy, as
substitute defender of the bond at the Tribunal of the Roman Rota.